


We Need A Little Christmas

by JourneyFairfeather



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-14
Updated: 2013-12-14
Packaged: 2018-01-04 15:46:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1082834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JourneyFairfeather/pseuds/JourneyFairfeather
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma can't sleep - and is too worried about Coulson to try - so she decides to do a little holiday decorating to cheer herself up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Need A Little Christmas

The Bus was quiet, everyone tucked away in their bunks. Coulson had been gone for almost two weeks, and though S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ claimed they had a few good leads, no one had given any of his team any real updates on his situation. The digital calendar on the wall in the main area said December 24th, but not a single person on the plane felt very into the Christmas spirit.

Jemma couldn't sleep. She was always the one up latest, and with everyone tucking away early lately, she was usually left to her own devices. That oftentimes meant working in the lab or rewatching old episodes of _Quantum Leap_ , a show she'd gotten hooked on during late nights at University.

Tonight, though, she decided to try and cheer up her teammates as well as herself. She dug through a closet in the storage area, coming up for air with arms full of boxes piled with lights and tinsel. She had a fleeting curious thought: "Who thought to stock The Bus with Christmas decorations?" but let it slip from her mind as she set to work.

She didn't know how long it had been when she stepped back, pressing her spine to the bar, looking over her handiwork. A single strand of blue and white lights hung in the only open space on the wall, zig-zagged from left to right to form a twinkly tree, a small clump of silver tinsel attached at the top as a makeshift star. Carefully strung along the ceiling, rows of multi-colored fairylights gave the room a cheery, Christmas-sy glow. She'd draped handfuls of tinsel over each little window along the sides of the room, and hung the only little bundle of holly over the entry door.

"It looks really nice, Jem."

Jemma jumped, putting her hand to her throat as she spun around to see Leo in the doorway. "You scared me, Fitz!" she stage-whispered.

He smiled a little, folding his arms over his chest. Jemma swallowed a little at the way his thin gray t-shirt pulled over the wiry muscles in his shoulders and biceps. "Sorry." He stepped into the room, closer to her side, and leaned back where she'd been a moment before. "I think everyone is going to like this. I think we all need a little Christmas right now."

"I don't even know if everyone here celebrates Christmas. I could be insulting everyone by decorating like this. I just... I needed to do something. I needed to do something that could make people happy, that could take our minds off everything for a moment, that could make everything seem normal, even if it's only for a little bit." She was rambling, she knew it, but she couldn't stop. "I can't believe we won't all be together on Christmas, Fitz. I haven't been able to celebrate the holiday in ages, and I really hoped - really _thought_ \- that we'd get to have Christmas together. You know, like a family."

She saw his face soften; no one besides Fitz knew how her life had been growing up. Her parents didn't know how to deal with a brilliant child, and decided the best way to do so was to send her away to every school they could so that she'd feel like she fit in. She assumed they'd had her best interests at heart, but since they kept doing it, kept sending her farther and farther away, it always made her feel so unwanted, so unloved. She hadn't celebrated Christmas with her parents since she was five, and to be honest, wasn't sure she ever wanted to again. Fitz had been her family since they'd met, and now she counted Skye, Ward, May, and Coulson as the extended part.

"Oh, Jemma," Leo murmured. He pulled her into his arms and held her close. "Listen to me, love. I'm sure Coulson is fine. Sure, he's not here with us, but he's _Coulson_. He'll probably be home before we even figure out where he is." He pulled back a little, looking down into her eyes as his hands curled around her arms lightly. "And I'm sure he'd love what you've done here, okay? He'd want us to celebrate. We've made it this far, and we've done it together. We should be celebrating the happy moments."

"I just... It feels weird to be _celebrating_ while one of us is missing." She sighed. "I'm sorry, Fitz. I shouldn't be dumping this on you."

"Hey, remember what I told you when you were sick? We do everything together. When you're hurting, you can always come to me. That's what friends are for. That's what _I'm_ for."

She managed a smile - a real, proper smile - this time. "What would I do without you?"

He didn't answer, and she was almost grateful for that, because she knew he was still thinking of that day on the loading bay, the day that his just being there essentially saved her life.

"I think I should unplug everything and get to bed. Might as well try to sleep, yeah?"

Jemma stepped over to unplug the light-tree, carefully draping the extension cord over a nearby chair so that it wouldn't get tangled. As she turned to move to the other side of the room, she was met with Fitz standing just behind her, his eyes dark and his arms loose at his side.

"What's wrong, Fitz?" she asked, looking around to see what had happened.

Instead of answering, he stepped so close there was barely room to breathe between them and brushed a loose strand of hair off her face. "Jemma..." Her name came out in a breath, and she didn't have time to react before his lips were on hers.

She stiffened, but just for a second, before it hit her just how _right_ it felt. She opened her lips beneath his and moved closer, allowing his arms to envelop her again, her own hands sliding up to the back of his neck.

There had been boys before him. She knew there had been girls in Fitz' life before her. She couldn't, however, ever remember anyone who made her feel like this with just a kiss. He tasted like cinnamon toothpaste, smelled like clean laundry and soap. The skin on her bare arms tingled where he touched her. She felt the goosebumps cross her body as his tongue dipped against hers, and she heard herself moan softly. She was surprised to realize that her heart wasn't racing, given her mind _was_ , but she chalked it up to her body knowing it was right and nothing to panic over.

When they broke the kiss, Jemma didn't move her fingers from his hair and he held onto her like she'd disappear if he let go. "Fitz," she breathed.

"Don't, Jemma." She was startled by his interruption. "Don't say you regret that. _Please_ don't say it."

She stroked the skin behind his ear with her thumb. "Never. I was just going to say I really should get to bed." He nodded slightly, looking a bit defeated, until she continued. "You could join me, if you like."

He raised an eyebrow, his arms tightening around her waist. "Are you sure?"

"I've never been more sure," she replied. "Merry Christmas, Leo."

He grinned, and she returned the expression. Sure, it wasn't a perfect Christmas, and sure, she was still worried about Coulson.

"Merry Chris - " She cut off his sentence with another kiss.

For just a little while, Jemma figured, they were allowed to be happy.


End file.
